seeking zanity in an inzane world

Posts Tagged ‘Copala’

I wrote the first version of this in Spanish as a homework assignment. This is a translation, with a few extra details and minor changes. You can read the Spanish version below. Many thanks to Lety, my Spanish teacher, for help with grammar.

– Arnie

Tranquility Comes to the Zócalo, but what is Coming to Oaxaca?

It’s the day after the election in Oaxaca and the Zócalo, the picturesque park at the city’s center, seems normal. Tourists and Oaxacans enjoy the newly planted flowers. Elderly couples dance to a marimba band. The waiters are busy. Tables in the sidewalk cafes are full.

Three days ago, the Zócalo was occupied by thousands of teachers, and was full of tarps, ropes, and street vendors. What a difference!

It’s the day after the election, and the relief is palpable. The voters have thrown out the Institutional Revolutionary Party (the PRI) after 80 years in power, the most recent of which were marked by repression. Oaxaca will have a new governor, Gabino Cue. He campaigned on a platform of “peace and progress,” and in his first speech after the election, he said, “We know that after the election it is a time for reconciliation.”

Leaders of the parties which make up the coalition he led are in agreement. “We are clear that the people’s will reflected at the ballot box was not only to search for a new road to change for the state, but also, fundamentally, for reconciliation,” said the president of the state council of the Convergence Party at a press conference the day after the election.

But in the Zócalo, the tranquility is interrupted by a march of about a hundred people, carrying a banner demanding justice for San Juan Copala, an indigenous village that has been besieged by paramilitary groups for months. They are chanting, “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”[i] They don’t want reconciliation, at least not with Ulisses Ruiz Ortiz, who is still Governor, and who is widely thought to be responsible for multiple assassinations, kidnappings, acts of torture, and other human rights violations, including the siege of San Juan Copala.

So far, Gabino is speaking in principles, not details. He speaks of “results,” “a modern government,” “transparency,” and “participation.” He plans to visit each of Oaxaca’s 570 towns at least twice, and also to hold public meetings on the first Wednesday of every month.

With respect to the crimes of the past, he promises to choose a new Attorney General “who will be in the service of the people, not the government.”

“Neither a witch-hunt nor impunity,” says Gabino Cue. If there are accusations of abuse, “The officials will make an investigation and they will give us the results.”

The work of the new governor will be a balancing act. On one side will be the activists from groups of indigenous people, farmers, and teachers. They will want justice, and change. On the other side will be the dinosaurs of the old PRI establishment, and they will be able to interrupt “peace and progress” if they want to.

And underneath all that are problems more fundamental than those of political parties, elections, and occupations. These are poverty, unemployment, the scarcity of water in many communities, the threats to agriculture from climate change and free trade, and conflicts over land and natural resources. According to Abraham Cruz García, writing in Noticias on July 6, “As it has been in the days of Independence and Revolution, foreign companies, like devious birds of prey, favored by the state and federal governments, have appropriated thousands of hectares that small farmers need to raise grains and basic necessities.”

Cruz García also writes about a new book by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who still insists the last presidential election was stolen from him, and who writes about the 30 people who control the Mexican economy, news media, and federal government. They are singing, “We Shall Not be Moved.”

One can find hope in the rhetoric of Gabino Cue, and in the citizen movement that elected him. Hope and rhetoric are pretty good places to start, but much more will be needed to achieve peace, progress, justice, and reconciliation.

6 July 2010

[i] This is the beginning of a popular street chant calling for Ulisses Ruiz Ortiz to be held accountable for his crimes.